Jacket
by planet p
Summary: The crew of Serenity land on a backwater planet and Jayne is assigned to watch River.


**Jacket** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _Firefly_ or any of its characters.

* * *

They'd come into range of the backwater planet a few hours earlier and set down on solid ground for supply replenishment.

Jayne sat at an uncomfortable wire stool in a cafeteria-style eat house, delegated the even more uncomfortable task of watching River, who was currently seated at an identical wire stool across the table, sipping a large purple milkshake through a curly orange straw.

That orange straw had been the last of the orange straws, but River had wanted specifically that straw, so now there was only pink straws up at the counter; anyone who came in now would have to take a pink curly straw, or a regular straight white one.

Jayne picked a hot potato chip off his plate, tasted it, and put it back on the plate – those chips needed salt.

River smiled at him pleasantly, and he made a face. He didn't need her smiles, for all he knew she could have been contemplating his death whilst she smiled.

He called over the waitress and asked for some salt to be brought over. The waitress hurried away to do so, but the salt shaker came back with a waiter.

When the salt shaker was set down by the waiter, River stood quickly and leant over to shake salt onto the chips. She replaced the salt shaker on the tabletop and sat down to finish her mango/berry milkshake.

Jayne scowled and grabbed a chip. He didn't even think mango and berry were meant to go together, rightly.

Likes, the waitress hadn't come back over to deliver the salt herself because she'd thought him as mad as River, who'd had to try every seat at the table they'd been directed toward, twirling and sitting quickly, before rising again to try another chair, and finally, finding the right seat and staying put on it. Like a crazy game of musical chairs. If that wasn't right mad, Jayne didn't know what was.

He didn't like the looks of that purple milkshake, either, and he strongly suspected he'd like the looks of River a whole lot less when she'd finished the noxious thing.

* * *

Done with the milkshake, River declared that she was now ready for apple pie. Jayne grumbled unhappily and took her up to the counter with him to order two slices of apple pie.

As they were eating their slice of pie, they watched a documentary about lizards on the set of televisions, also playing a reality show in which contestants were assigned psychiatrists, the Ad Channel – non-stop ads, twenty-four hours, seven days – and the half-hourly news, and various other programs, including the Crime Channel, which made Jayne feel slightly apprehensive that River and Simon's picture would suddenly flash up onto the screen before their eyes and alert the staff to their fugitive status.

He crammed his apple pie into his mouth, and as many chips as he could as River finished up her slice of pie, and, the second she'd finished, stood swiftly to drag her from the eat house by her arm. The waitress already thought the worst of him, in any case.

It was cold outside, so he dragged River with him into what he thought might be a general department store across the road. Stepping inside, he was pleased to find that his first impression had been right.

They wandered through the store until they came to the clothing section and Jayne eyed a rack of jackets. He walked over to look through the rack, feel some of the material thicknesses, check out the range of colours available, how many pockets and where.

He was reasonably pleased with exactly three of the jackets, and decided to move on to the footwear section.

As he walked, dragging River with him, they passed a floor-to-ceiling mirror, and he had the sudden urge to drop River's hand, in case anyone thought that they were together. He resisted the urge painfully. He couldn't chance River wandering off. If she damaged something, it'd be him paying for it. And if she damaged herself, it'd still be him paying for it.

Surprisingly, the footwear section impressed him more than he'd thought it would, and he found at least half a dozen pairs of shoes he'd like to buy for various differing activities.

River, for her part, remained quiet beside him, and sometimes, he found himself forgetting that she was there, except that he was always still holding her hand, of course.

He didn't know why he'd been assigned River duty, but he didn't like it. She was annoying, even when her mouth was closed. She got in the way.

He left the footwear section, mindful of the time, and trudged back through the store toward the exit. He'd be relieved of River soon. Then he'd be free. He'd be able to decide on a jacket to buy, maybe some tee shirts, a pair of boots.

As they were passing the clothing section, Jayne cast a look at the rack of jackets he'd earlier perused, then his eyes moved onto the other jackets, the women's jackets.

He pulled River with him, back over to the jackets, and told her to pick a jacket. He didn't think she had any of her own. He tried to remember having seen her in a jacket of her own, but could only remember her in any number of her brother, Simon's jackets.

River glanced at him, but he was in no mood to explain it to her, so he picked out five or six of the jackets and headed off for the mirror where River would be able to see what she looked like when she tried each of the jackets on and pick the one she liked best.

He'd didn't know why he was bothering – why he was wasting his time, his money – but he didn't feel like thinking on it, so he pushed it away, twisted River toward the mirror by her shoulders and handed her a jacket, and told her to try it on.

River had no opinion on which jacket she liked most, so Jayne chose one he thought had looked half decent and he though might be reasonably multipurpose, and headed for the registers.

He felt stupid, standing at the register with River still in her unpurchased jacket, and he fought down a blush when he grabbed the price tag and held it up for the cashier to scan with the handheld scanner. He could tell the cashier wasn't impressed to have to do so, but he pretended not to care, pretended he didn't even notice the cashier's displeasure or annoyance.

Outside the department store, River stood in her puffy new jacket – tag still attached – and smiled.

Jayne thought she looked like she was going on a skiing trip, and shook the thought and wondered why he'd even wasted his money to buy her a jacket. It wasn't as though he should be particularly concerned whether she had enough warm clothes or not. That was Simon's job.

* * *

River was smiling when she met her brother, and Simon glanced at Jayne, curious as to where River had gotten her new jacket, but Jayne walked away. He'd done his part.

* * *

_Thanks for reading._


End file.
